Onno van der Hart & Olivier PiedFort-Marin's “amnesia and hypermnesia as a paradigm of non-realization in trauma-related dissociation: Pierre Janet's Case of Irene”: A review and commentary

Abstract

This review of Onno van der Hart and Olivier Piedfort-Marin's (2023) article, “Amnesia and Hypermnesia as a Paradigm of Non-realization in Trauma-Related Dissociation: Pierre Janet's Case of Irène” highlights a rich historical, conceptual, and clinical exploration of Pierre Janet's work with his famous patient, Irène. Given their erudite study of Janet's writing and lectures of almost 40 years, the authors afford the reader an intriguing window into some of the most important and perplexing issues pertaining to psychotherapy with complex trauma and dissociative disorders, including Janet's understanding of hysteria (i.e., structural dissociation); psychasthenia (i.e., debilitating mental symptoms, as in obsessions); memory, including the stark contrast between hypermnesia and amnesia, and memory as reproduction versus construction; and realization, i.e., the patient's present-day view of themselves, traumatizing others, and new meanings derived from successful psychotherapy. The authors invite the reader to situate Janet's work with Irène in relation to contemporary, trauma-informed psychotherapy. Accepting their invitation, I consider how an understanding of traumatic shame states, movement from a one to two-personal psychology, and modern attachment theory coupled with relationally-oriented psychotherapy, might enhance our work with patients such as Irène, today.